Doctor Marigold: a novella by Charles Dickens

by Charles Dickens

Overview

Doctor Marigold

Charles Dickens

• This book is about the story of a "Cheap-Jack" who sells inexpensive articles to the poor in popular fairs. Doctor Marigold, named for the man who delivered him, is a "cheap-jack" who hawks sundries from a traveling cart. His lonely fortunes reverse when he adopts a deaf and mute girl whose mother is dead and whose stepfather, owner of a traveling circus, beats her.After losing both his daughter and wife, he decides to adopt a deaf and mute girl and names her Sophy after his dead daughter. Throughout the two chapters of the book, Dickens portrays the activities of salesmen in the markets and gives samples of the captivating jingles and patters that they sing.
• Doctor Marigold, who seems to share with Dickens his linguistic passions, invents a system of sign language for his adopted daughter and teaches her to read and communicate. Dickens' novella also represents an examination of critical social issues which were much debated in Victorian England, namely adoption and the place of the disabled in the public eye.
• The latter issue becomes even more complicated when people with a natural handicap decide to marry and run the risk of passing on the handicap to their children. In the narrative, when Sophy marries, Marigold is greatly saddened for her departure. She later sends him a letter to tell him that she is worried that her expected child would be deaf. All culminates in a happy ending, however, when Sophy comes back home and Doctor Marigold assures her that his granddaughter is perfectly healthy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9782382742488
Publisher:	Les Prairies Numeriques
Publication date:	10/28/2020
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.06(d)

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is probably the greatest novelist England has ever produced, the author of such famous books as A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Oliver Twist. His innate comic genius and shrewd depictions of Victorian life — along with his indelible characters — have made his books beloved by readers the world over. Dickens was born in Landport, Portsea, England and died in Kent after suffering a stroke. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know hunger, privation, and the horrors of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. These unfortunate early life experiences helped shape many of his greatest works.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington